Amtrak's dilemma: More passengers but too few places to put them

Tuesday

Amtrak, the nation’s passenger rail service, is enjoying a resurgence based on convenience and high gasoline prices, but may be held back by an aging fleet of passenger cars.

Amtrak, the nation’s passenger rail service, is enjoying a resurgence based on convenience and high gasoline prices, but may be held back by an aging fleet of passenger cars.

“Each month we’re selling more and more tickets than we did the month before,” Amtrak Springfield station agent Joe Sullivan said Tuesday. “It’s due to the gas prices.”

Legislation introduced Tuesday in Washington by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is designed to promote rehabilitation of Amtrak’s fleet and revive the passenger car industry in the United States.

Amtrak ridership is up 11 percent from last year to more than 21 million passengers — including a jump of almost 20 percent on the Chicago-to-St. Louis trains through Springfield. Ticket revenue also is up nationwide, by 13.6 percent, to $1.26 billion.

However, Durbin said Amtrak won’t be able to keep up with demand unless more money is put into the system, notably including more and better cars.

The bill proposes a package of financing options to bring Amtrak’s existing 1,500 passenger cars up to snuff and “lay the groundwork for the next generation of trains built in America,” he said.

Amtrak, which will receive federal subsidies of almost $1.4 billion in this fiscal year, uses another 140 or so passenger cars that are state-owned.

“We’re filling the cars we own, and we have to start expanding,” Durbin said. “We gave up production of train cars in this country years ago, and we need to re-establish that industry.”

Five trains run back and forth through Springfield each day. That includes three trains financed primarily through funds made available by the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Texas Eagle, a long-distance train from Chicago to San Antonio.

Ticket prices for the Chicago-Springfield roundtrip range from $36 to $100, depending on when you buy your ticket. A certain number of seats are set aside at the $36 price, while others sell for slightly more. The most-expensive seats are booked last if no cheaper fare is available, Sullivan said.

“If people have flexibility, we can probably meet their price,” he said.

St. Louis-Springfield ticket prices range from $26 to $72 roundtrip.

Durbin’s bill provides funding to encourage manufacturers currently supplying passenger rail cars overseas to open modern facilities here. And it provides a tax incentive for private domestic businesses to re-enter the passenger rail equipment business and rebuild facilities and train cars in the United States.

The legislation also would create a trust fund to replace the nation’s train cars by transferring one-quarter cent of the per-gallon motor fuel tax into the trust fund for three years. That would generate about $400 million a year, Durbin said.

“You couldn’t get a seat on an Amtrak train on Memorial Day,” the Springfield Democrat said. “And sadly, what’s going to happen is that after the summer vacation rush, the airlines are going to shut down more and more of their schedules, and then comes the biggest travel day of the year — Thanksgiving. People are going to find out you can’t get a seat on Amtrak”

Chris Dettro can be reached at (217) 788-1510 or chris.dettro@sj-r.com.

Amtrak figures

-Ridership on Illinois state-subsidized Amtrak routes increased by 181,000 passengers over last year during the first eight months of Amtrak’s current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. That brings total ridership to 670,000 for the year.

-Ridership was up 19.08 percent to 341,766 passengers through June on the four Lincoln Service trains between Chicago and St. Louis, while the Texas Eagle long-distance train saw an increase of 8.8 percent to 174,214 passengers.

-Ticket revenue is up 30.8 percent to $7.8 million on the Chicago-St. Louis routes and 12 percent to $13.2 million on the Texas Eagle.

-Trains on the Chicago-St. Louis corridor carried 55.8 percent more passengers in fiscal 2007 over fiscal 2006. Ridership grew 67.4 percent on the Chicago-Carbondale route during the same period.

-Ridership on the Illinois Zephyr and Carl Sandburg routes (Chicago to Quincy) is up 20.4 percent so far this year, compounding a 41.7 percent increase in 2007.

Amtrak’s chief executive officer says Amtrak will have five rail cars rehabilitated and ready for immediate use by the end of the year, and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is lobbying for them to be brought to Illinois.

Durbin said the St. Louis, Carbondale and Quincy routes have seen the fastest growth in passengers and revenue of any Amtrak routes in the country.

In response to a letter from Durbin in May, Alex Kummant, Amtrak CEO, reiterated a pledge to use any new funding appropriated by Congress for Amtrak’s capital needs to rehabilitate other train cars and return them to service.

The letter asked Kummant to increase the rolling stock available for use in new service from Chicago to Iowa City, Iowa, through the Quad Cities and from Chicago to Dubuque, Iowa, through Rockford and Galena.

Amtrak currently stores train cars that could be rehabilitated at its maintenance facilities in Delaware.

The Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this month approved $1 billion in new funding for Amtrak capital needs and $550 million for operating needs. An additional $100 million was approved to help states promote new intercity passenger rail service and improve rail corridors.

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